The product containing beverage or the like to be sold generally has a tamper indication means for providing the means for confirming the first opening thereof. The tamper indication means is a means for providing confidence that the bottle containing the beverage, drug or the like is provided to the consumer without any prior experience of opening, which is required to have the construction that cannot be opened without the trace of opening such as the cutting of the tamper indication means.
There are several prior arts concerning the tamper indication means such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,074,425 and 3,673,761 (Leitz/CIBA-Geigy AG), Germanic Patent No. OS-14 82 603 (Teillac/ALCA S.A.), etc.
FIGS. 15 and 16 show a general conventional construction of the bottle cap having the tamper indication means.
As shown in the drawings, the conventional bottle cap 200 is comprised of a circumferential portion 210 that is shaped to wrap up the outer surface of the opening of a bottle and has a spiral structure (not shown) on the inner surface thereof, a cap portion 220 formed to close the upper side of the circumferential portion 210, and a tamper indication means 230.
Here, the tamper indication means 230 is comprised of a band 231 that is so formed around the lower end of the circumferential portion 210 as to wrap up the outer surface of the opening of the bottle, and a plurality of connection bridges 232 that connect the band 231 and the circumferential portion 210 with each other. When the bottle cap 200 is first opened, the circumferential portion 210 and the band 231 are separated from each other by cutting.
Further, in order to separate the band 231 from the bottle after the connection bridges 231 are cut off by the first opening of the bottle cap 200, there would be equipped a cut-off portion 240 that is cut off at a certain position on the band 231 and a connection part 240 that connects the band 231 with the lower end of the circumferential portion 210 of the bottle cap 200.
The tamper indication means 230 is required only when the bottle cap 200 is first opened. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 16, the bottle cap 200 is separated from the bottle while the band 231 is hung on the bottle cap 200, and the band 231 is then removed clearly as the connection part 250 is wholly cut off by twisting it or any other manipulation. Then, the operation to assemble the bottle cap 200 with the bottle after the first opening and the operation to re-open the bottle cap 200 when the bottle cap 200 is to be re-opened are not hindered by the tamper indication means 230.
Many of conventional arts about the bottle cap with the tamper indication means have been known publicly, however, all of them have the construction that the first opening of the bottle cap and the cutting off of the connection bridge are executed in a single operation in a twisting manner as above. Therefore, in order to help the twist of the bottle cap 200, a wrinkled portion for increasing the frictional force with respect to the fingers is generally formed on the outer surface of the circumferential portion 210 of the bottle cap 200.
However, such a conventional bottle cap 200 that has the construction to be opened by the twist has the following problems.
First, after the bottle cap 200 is first opened, the piece of the tamper indication means 230 such as the band 231 will remain on the opening portion of the bottle or a certain area of the bottle cap 200, which is not helpful to the closing or the re-opening of the bottle cap 200 but is an obstacle to such operations, so there needed an additional operation to remove it.
Second, it is preferable that the cap portion 220 and the circumferential portion 210 of the bottle cap 220 include a certain amount of area to display the trademark about the content in the bottle or the advertisement, however, such an area cannot be secured in the conventional construction as the wrinkled portion for increasing the friction with respect to the finger has to be formed on the circumferential portion of the bottle cap 200.
Third, since a screw structure for opening and closing by twist has to be formed on the outer surface of the opening of the bottle and the inner surface of the bottle cap 200, the height of the bottle cap 200 has to be greater than a certain size.
Four, as a process to equip the bottle cap 200 onto the opening of the bottle by the twist thereof is required in the manufacturing process of the product that contains the content, it is hard to simplify the manufacturing process.